Paper Moon

1973

Action / Comedy / Crime / Drama

Synopsis

Adapted from the novel, "Addie Pray" (1971) by Joe David Brown, PAPER MOON is the story of Moses Pray and Addie Loggins. With scenery reminiscent of "The Grapes of Wrath," the film is set in the depression-era Midwestern region of the United States. As the movie opens, we see a small group of mourners clustered at a graveside. Among the mourners is Addie, the dead woman's small daughter. Moses Pray -- ostensibly of the "Kansas Bible Company" -- approaches the group, as the service concludes, and two of the elderly women remark that the child bears some resemblance to him and asks if he might be related. "If ever a child needed kin, it's now," one lady says. With no knowledge of who her father is, Addie's only haven is her Aunt's home in St. Joseph, Missouri. Having identified himself as a "traveling man spreading the Lord's gospel in these troubled times," "Mose" is prevailed upon to deliver the helpless child to her Aunt since he's going that way, anyway. Addie, wise beyond her years...

Adapted from the novel, "Addie Pray" (1971) by Joe David Brown, PAPER MOON is the story of Moses Pray and Addie Loggins. With scenery reminiscent of "The Grapes of Wrath," the film is set in the depression-era Midwestern region of the United States. As the movie opens, we see a small group of mourners clustered at a graveside. Among the mourners is Addie, the dead woman's small daughter. Moses Pray -- ostensibly of the "Kansas Bible Company" -- approaches the group, as the service concludes, and two of the elderly women remark that the child bears some resemblance to him and asks if he might be related. "If ever a child needed kin, it's now," one lady says. With no knowledge of who her father is, Addie's only haven is her Aunt's home in St. Joseph, Missouri. Having identified himself as a "traveling man spreading the Lord's gospel in these troubled times," "Mose" is prevailed upon to deliver the helpless child to her Aunt since he's going that way, anyway. Addie, wise beyond her years...

Tech specs

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by chaudhariu10 / 10

Paper moon touches your innermost self

This movie is difficult to be described in words, at least the right choice of words. There is some eccentricity in the storyline, its very catchy and entertaining but at the same time absolutely unassuming and unpredictable. Normally you would always be amazed to see how many times you wanted certain things to happen during the movie but it is so practical that you realise that you are assuming too much of romanticism in the world which seldom exists and thats why the plot is near perfect! Still the movie continues to entertain you, its neither a happy romanticised dream nor a tragedy but its the slug fit between these two ends of the drama.
The acting and on screen chemistry of real life father daughter duo is phenomenal and certainly Tatum O'neal amazes as a child actor. The movie explores certain dimensions of those delicate and subtle human emotions of love which you long to express but cannot due to situations.
Its definitely impressive movie with a perfect acting, plot, settings and direction which made me revise its rating to a perfect 10 from 9 as I couldn't stop thinking about it for long time!

Reviewed by jramirez-669067 / 10

A Grand Masterpiece from Bogdanovich

The first frame of the picture starts with a song entitled "It's Only A Paper Moon" and when the opening titles came on screen, the film felt reminiscent of a Woody Allen film, but in respect Bogdanovich had gone to extreme lengths of trying to pay homage to the great film maestro Orson Welles. I would have to concur that the cinematography and the credit for the use of deep focus should be credited to James Wong Howe who started an experimental process as far back as 1925, since he was experimenting with camera lenses and lighting to make sequences stand out in the pictures. The film then went on to tell the story of a bible salesman, and just as he was making his sales with a satisfactory customer, he notices an adolescent girl that wants to learn the trick of the trade in selling bibles as part of a con job. One thing that I will note that makes this film a grand masterpiece is the use of black and white cinematography, popular songs in the background as the film's score, the performances by Ryan O'Neal and his daughter Tatum are superb, as well as Madeline Kahn in an Oscar-nominated performance. Another positive aspect about this film is the direction that Bogdanovich outlays from story, character development, and conveying the feel and look of the era of the Great Depression. I saw this film nearly 4 to 5 years ago on DVD, there are some cons to this film, that can make it a bit problematic, first is the length, I understand that the film is long and that when there is not much action, your mind cannot take the stress of too much dialogue sequences, which is what I felt whilst watching this movie. I also felt that some of the sequences like when Ryan O'Neal is out with the Tatum O'Neal in the middle of the town in Texas is a bit antiquated when she ends up getting lost and Ryan had to search all over the area to find her. But, I do have some positive things to say about the camera angles and shots used in the film, for the sequence when Ryan O'Neal is talking to the mechanic at a train station if you look carefully at the far left of the screen, of the open window right behind the man in the train station, you can see two girls playing out back in clear view. It is distracting and takes the focus away from the story, but it is pretty awesome to see something like that in a film such as this. I like the film, and it's a story that has been used in modern films and TV shows to provide inspiration like "Suite Life of Zack and Cody" when they re-used the same story but to con the people in the hotel. That's what I feel about this movie, a grand masterpiece from Peter Bogdanovich.

Reviewed by 8512229 / 10

Highly involving movie

Greetings from Lithuania.

"Paper Moon" (1973) is a simple story, yet so convincingly done that i couldn't take my eyes from screen not for a second during its 1 h and 40 min run. Both leads were excellent and of course legendary role of Tatum O'Neal was superb. Directing, writing and excellent black and white cinematography shined here as well - i couldn't imagine at the beginning of how involving this movie is going to be.

Overall, "Paper Moon" (1973) is a road movie as well great character study drama. It has some humor, but its not a comedy. Its not sentimental as well although it could have been. This is a very good movie by all means.